Clock Tower 3 (PS2)
Serial killers, ghouls, and buckets o' blood.
By Adam Pavlacka | April 12, 2003
63
Fair
The Lowdown: An incredibly visceral experience hampered by a restrictive camera and limited gameplay.
Pros: Excellent atmosphere; good voice acting; innovative life meter.
Cons: Very short game, limited camera views, repetitive boss battles.
Platform: PlayStation 2
Game Type: Survival Horror
Developer: Sunsoft
Publisher: Capcom
ESRB: Mature
Full Game Information
Capcom is often credited with creating the survival-horror genre with Resident Evil, but the roots of the genre go back much further. One of the earliest attempts was the Clock Tower series, which actually dates back to the days of 16-bit games and limited point-and-click adventure interfaces. While the series' PlayStation entries were brought to the U.S. courtesy of Ascii/Agetec, those earlier games weren't so hot. Boring would be a more appropriate word.
With the demise of developer Human, the Clock Tower series needed a fresh start if it was going to go anywhere. In what seemed like a natural pairing, Capcom picked up the rights to the game, and for the last two years has been working in conjunction with Sunsoft to make a cinematic horror experience. Alas, they've only half succeeded. While the game's visuals certainly live up to the "Mature" rating, the actual gameplay experience still leaves something to be desired. It may be survival horror, but this is no Silent Hill killer.
In Clock Tower 3 you play the role of 14-year-old Alyssa Hamilton. A student at a boarding school in London, Alyssa gets a letter from her mother warning her not to come home, but rather to go into hiding to escape a horrible evil. So, like most intelligent 14-year-old kids, Alyssa promptly ignores her mother and heads straight home into a supernatural pit of horror.
The game's strongest point is easily the script work. Written by the same company responsible for the Resident Evil and Onimusha scripts -- don't worry, they've come a long way since "The master of unlocking" -- the story driving the game is respectably done. Combined with some excellent cinema scenes and a distinct visual style, Clock Tower 3 scores high marks in the presentation department. Unfortunately, presentation alone does not make a classic.
The scripting company is not the only thing Clock Tower 3 inherited from Resident Evil. It also inherited the locked-down-I-can-only-see-one-corner-of-the-room camera work. In the early days of the Sega Saturn and PlayStation, static camera views made sense. They allowed the game developer to create high-resolution rendered backgrounds while devoting more polygons to the characters. The PlayStation 2, however, has a lot more horsepower. There is no reason why the player should not have been able to move the camera around freely. It is an unnecessary hindrance.
Another problem with the gameplay is the surprising simplicity of it. Sure, there are puzzles to solve, but they rarely require any sort of deep thinking. No, the puzzles here consist of, "Oh look, a shiny object!" and "Oh look, I can use it in the next room!" Basically, if it is flashing, you need it. If not, don't bother.
In an attempt to keep up a frantic pace, Clock Tower 3 does two things: it replaces the traditional life meter with a panic meter and is constantly sending a big bad guy to chase you down. The panic meter is a nice innovation, if a bit unrealistic. Basically, if Alyssa is calm she can take more damage than Arnold Schwarzenegger in his Conan days. Get her a bit freaked out, though, and Alyssa will die if someone so much as sneezes in her general direction. Odd, isn't it? Of course getting smacked around by ghosts and serial killers will raise anyone's panic level. Alyssa's cure for too much fear is lavender water, described by the manual as a "gentle herb." Gotta wonder if Capcom's next game will have the hero smoking a few "gentle herbs" to relax a bit.
Run! Run like a girl! In any case, having a big bad guy chase the main character through a level is a good way to keep the pressure on, but it does tend to result in a bit of frustration. Players will no doubt find themselves turning a corner to avoid getting hit when the camera view suddenly changes and momentarily throws off their sense of spatial perception. In other words, you end up pressing the wrong direction and take a hit. The constant running also prevents any sort of exploring. "Completionists" will find this aspect annoying.
Although it makes for a fun ride, Clock Tower 3 suffers from the aforementioned gameplay flaws as well as a lack of depth. The game can be easily finished in under six hours on the first run through -- rather short for a full-priced game. If the puzzles had been fully integrated with the story or had the levels been larger the game might have had some lasting appeal. While seeing the Capcom name on its box makes Clock Tower 3 seem like a good candidate for an impulse purchase, your best bet is to wait and rent it when you have a spare evening. Save your hard earned cash for Silent Hill 3. •
courtesy of gamespy website
